Done. But as noted forced to add entries to complete that are not applicable if you don’t use one…

Supersessions, what symptoms led up to you needing an op? Only ask as I have a small amount of numbness in one finger… Booked to see my GP next week. Cheers and hope it goes well.

THX1138, just out of curiosity could you expand on…

I’ve concluded that the Sonos system is really rather overpriced for what it is, and doesn’t offer the flexibility of an Airplay system

Exactly how is Airplay more flexible?

It is essential that baked beans, at all times contain tabasco sauce, or similar.

Dried chilli flakes for me… 😀

Good call!

Tomato has completely the wrong texture to be a part of the ‘perfect’ fry up. Big question is how to prepare the eggs, creamy smooth and scrambled, poached or fried? Have a say I love my version of scrambled but frankly they all work, would probably say poached for the perfect dish. Something my old man introduced me to is white pudding, nicely crisped on the edges and very dry, would have a have a place…

So, IMO…

Poached eggs (2)
Fried bread (2 halves)
Bacon (2)
White pudding (4 or 5 one inch sections)
Button Mushrooms (cut into quarters, cooked fast on a high heat in butter with lots of black pepper)
Small portion of beans
Large mug of strong breakfast tea

No ketchup… Eggy bread a nice alternative to fried bread or toast.

Slash was bred for the extreme demands of Megavalanche Enduro events. A bike built for the most technical, high-speed riding without sacrificing pedaling efficiency. Built for tackling the entire mountain.

Always think it’s best to ride whatever makes you smile… this quote from Treks website would suggest that it’s possibly a little much but there are trails where it’ll be great, if you’re sessioning them all day then why not.

Amen to that…

Thinking of getting back into swimming and planning to do some early morning prior to work. Quick question on accepted swim wear. I only have big baggy shorts which are hopeless so need something with a little less drag, don’t see many wearing speedos these days but as I normally swim with my kids at the weekend that’s not too surprising.

What’s generally seen as acceptable?

Good wasn’t it 😉

Mountainmutant that’s lovely. Aus, I have one of these, it’s not G tough and not analogue but it’s one hell of an outdoor time piece.

Personally I wouldn’t do it. I like to think we have moved on from the days of kids being seen and not heard. Each to their own though, parenting doesn’t come naturally to some.

Don’t think I’ve ever heard a more misaligned comment about boarding school. It’s 2013 not the Victorian age for gods sake… Still, great troll effort though…

I consider myself lucky to have attended a local prep school (7-13) as a day boy, to prepare me for my next school I boarded for the last year. This school was sponsored by the RAF so we had a lot of forces kids. I absolutely loved my time there, it was mixed rather than single sex and had a real family feel. It was a wonderful five years of my life and I can’t imagine many people talking of school like that…

I was a full boarder at my next school and again had a good experience, not so good as the last but still very happy. IMO a lot depends on the school and character of the child. But boarding for me was an immensely positive experience, coming home for the odd weekend was all the more exciting to catch up with family and friends.

From my experience not much to say against boarding. Once kids have acclimatised it’s a second home and the facilities and staffing are first rate. I’m sure that’s not universal but if you’re taking the plunge just choose well.

Care to elaborate? By ‘AV sender’ are you wanting to connect your Sky receiver to a second TV elsewhere in the house? If so and assuming you have Sky HD then, and only if you want to mirror quality, you need three things. An HDMI splitter (1×2), a length of CAT5 running between locations and a pair of HDBaseT baluns. HDBaseT is a standard not a brand, just Google it and you’ll find several options.

If you’re asking for a wireless solution can’t help. Never rely on it and quality would be poo.

Sonos is a cracking system compromised at price point only by bit rate (and you control that),you’ll love the user interface but speak no more of it on this thread or you’ll be flamed…

Done. Tragic news and heartfelt consolation to family and friends.

Tested one at the end of 2011 when searching for a new bike. Not the bike for me but I was looking for something different, just had a go on a whim. Actually thought it was pretty bloody excellent, fast, light and climbs astonishingly well. Comfortable to. As an all day XC ride I couldn’t fault it.

Hi Paul.

Endomondo to track where you’ve been.
ViewRanger to tell you where you are*

* need to purchase OS maps (or tiles) and download to your phone. All done ‘in app’ so easy but OS aren’t cheep. I recon I’ve spent the best part of £25 on tiles to cover my regular riding haunts. Really good app though and no need for a connection which is priceless when on the trail.

i run a Squeezebox to a pair of meridian dsp 5200 – simply has to be heard to be believed

Mashie, I have several clients that do this although source is typically Sonos, Linn DS, Soolos etc… Perfectly viable solution but always worth making sure the bit rate is as high as possible, especially with such lovely speakers. Nice buy, one of my all time favourites 😉

Needles to say there are some things you can’t avoid. My favourite radio station is DI Breaks and this is streamed at about 128Kbps, so not exactly Hi-Fi and I have this on about 80% of my listening time 😳 Oh but what I’d do to have this at WAV or FLAC. Hi-Fi does have huge BS factor but no more than Bikes or Wine, any industry where opinion is subjective and ‘absolute quality’ cannot be measured will allow the marketers to run riot but, and it’s a big BUT, a quality Hi-Fi is a real and lovely experience. Granted you can do a lot with £750 but, like Mashie’s speakers, quality is obvious when experienced.

Project manager

Probably the best description but my role involves the sales, design and delivery process so it’s a bit broad for a simple definition. I work for a contract audio visual company and in short we ‘pimp’ homes with lifestyle technology solutions;

Cinema
Multi-room music and video
Automated lighting, window treatment etc…
Data networks
Entry systems and CCTV
Custom control systems (control everything via iPad etc…)
You get the idea….

I left uni early as I couldn’t see where it was going and went to work in a decent Hi-Fi store to ‘buy some time’ whilst I worked out what I was going to do… Never thought I’d find something I enjoyed so much and that suited my creative tendencies. Worked there for around ten years with a [brief] interlude to do a Ski season in the Three Valleys, then caught a break when introduced to my boss who was building a custom install company. In at the beginning and we’re going great guns.

I design systems for some of the most beautiful homes in London and the surrounding counties, we also have projects in Europe (St Moritz, Geneva, Nice etc..) with, in some case, simply eye watering sums of money involved – really interesting clients. What’s nice is we engage in projects across the price spectrum so it’s not just the uber rich, but needless to say what we sell is not exactly cheap. Tech changes so fast it’s a constant race to keep up and make sure we embrace the best solutions for our clients… I love my job… 😀

We had a great spin around the Punch Bowl in Surrey finishing off with mugs of coffee and bacon and egg buns at the cafe…a great morning out 😀

Stuartie C that first shot is lovely… Please tell me what was necessary to pull it off as capturing motion like that is something I’d love to learn. Tripod? Filter?

Cheers.

Found myself meandering with a little deep forest… Leftfield next.

Yep, snowing fairly consistently in Haslemere now 😀

West end of Surrey Hills near Hampshire, nothing yet.

Oh, we’re West end of the North downs on the Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire boarders. Looks like we’ll be hit.

Working from home on friday. Warm, snug and coffee on tap

This. Why travel if it can be avoided?

Yes, a little. But I’ve never really found it to be an issue, I tend to stay off the brakes which is why it’s so much fun… 😉 I used to have a Specialized FSR which of course has more active suspension, but Interestingly I felt disconnected from the trail by comparison. Same deal with the Mojo, the bike felt lifeless to me. Nice, just no feedback.

Just checked this out though…now that’s just lovely…

New yellow Bandit

You’re definitely going about it the right way. I demo’d an ASR5, Covert, Five, Mojo HD and Epic…. Went for the Five but had a few sleepless nights as I also loved the Covert. They were all great but the Five and Covert were what i was after.

As it happens I had my Five custom built by my LBS and it spanks the Pro I tested so very happy. Don’t want to sound like the typical fanboy but it really is very good, but then i chose it from a selection so i knew it was ‘right’ for me. I get tired of people trashing other people decisions or suggesting that any bike will do, from my experience there are certain bikes that natively suit how each of us likes to ride, granted it’s difficult to make a really bad decision but it makes a world of difference when you get it right 😀

Had mine a year now and no problems to speak of. I suspect the bandit will feel lighter and more nimble as the Five and Covert we’re really very similar, but never tested the bandit so can’t really comment. Zestys look good but never tried one.

As a fairly heavy guy (16st) and one who loves to charge down hill I discounted the bandit on looks, not aesthetically just that rear triangle looks awfully fragile. Odd how we judge things but hey ho…!

Go with what feels right. Here’s what I did…oh, just make sure you get a dropper what ever you do. Can’t advocate enough just how brilliant they are.

It’s essentially just bandwidth that differentiates HDMI cables. Cheap and nasty will potentially cause problems over long distances, especially with the latest video standards, but essentially as long as you buy based on the standard linked below you’re perfectly safe.

HDMI consumer info for cables

windows……aaarrrrggghhh!

Fix it for you…

Hmmmm…

So studio equipment is perfect due to required application, OK so all studio kit must sound the same then…? Surely must be the case as sound engineers need ‘perfect reproduction’ to master our music.

No I here you say…. Ahhh, a bit like bikes then. No such thing as perfect just millions of people with their own opinion about what’s good. Wine, food, houses all the same. You can’t quantify perfect so everyone has a go.

Definitely go active though. Always seems to me to be a more cost effective route to better sound.

Nice. Not far short of excellant and well up there. Two things that really bother me about websites are 1) navigation and 2) finding information. I think you have both well covered. On my iPad I can swipe left / right and up / down to view your images which makes it easy and enjoyable to flick through your work.

I think the ‘about’ and ‘pricing’ pages are a little long winded, no one will read it all. Keep it minimal with just the important information, maybe link to a downloadable PDF where details about your packages can be accessed by those keen to find out more of what the packages contain.

On the left sidebar lose the dashes separating the tabs, they detract from the clean feel of the site and look untidy. Not sure you need another side bar,I like the big photo space it has impact. The only other thing I would suggest is adding some colour, not much and I know you pro guys love black and white, but just a touch somewhere to brighten it up.

Very good effort and well on the way I say.

Not sure where you guys are based but whilst the UK average missed the record by 6mm, as I understand it average rainfall in England broke the record by some margin. Scotland and N.Ireland were nearer their personal averages and held us back…

Seems so. Useful…

If you download a rented movie on your computer: You can transfer it to a device such as your Apple TV (1st generation), iPhone, iPad, or iPod if it’s a standard-definition film (movies in HD can only be watched on your computer, iPad, iPhone 4 or later, iPod touch (4th generation or later), or Apple TV). Once you move the movie from your computer to a device, the movie will disappear from your computer’s iTunes library. You can move the movie between devices as many times as you wish during the rental period, but the movie can only exist on one device at a time.

Shteve, from a legal service no chance, that is essentially copying and against the law. As far as I can see the UK has pretty limited streaming services and LoveFilms DVD service is the best. Of course over the pond they have Vudu which is superb… Lets hope we get it over here sometime soon. UltraViolet[/url] is a very good idea too and is linked with Vudu.

Seems we have to wait as usual.

Talking Sky. There movies may be a little limited like the others but the implementation of catch up is fantastic. Just 4OD to add to complete the line up but as a Sky subscriber that’s the best addition to the service for a while.

EDIT : if iTunes allows you to rent and download to iPad it’s a feature I’ve missed. So one possible solution.

Next election will be a train crash for the tories. Rightly so.

Great, then the blithering idiots that walked us open eyed into this mess can have another go – that or the part timers somehow get out of pre school and into big school…

They’re all too busy playing politics than running the country IMO 👿

Oh, and this tortuous argument about living within means… Come on, I’m sure we all do that (mostly) but regardless of income we all end up living and working within an environment that stretches our budget especially in this climate so even a small loss is a PITA…

The only way they would play music through the Apple TV is via AirTunes from the mac or their iPods so the Appletv thing is really a non-issue…. I believe the OP was asking for advice re his kids and iTunes.

Yes, but why does this require a separate account? I’m not advocating that you can’t, or shouldn’t, just that I personally would not as there will be issues further down the line. Seen it plenty of times. Totally appreciate the OP was asking about music but iTunes is about a lot more than that so the point is valid.

Bottom line he can do either. I’d keep it to one account and put a limit on the spend, then change the password if they started misusing it.

The bit about locked into the account is incorrect, the machine it plays on is the important bit, the content needs to be authorised to play on the desktop or laptop you are syncing to

Hi Sandwich, not entirely true but you’re correct about the machine being used to sync. However any iTunes purchase track is locked into the account used to purchase it as the meta data is stamped with the account details. If you have Apple TV2 try playing a track purchased from a different account than the one Apple TV is associated with… won’t work.

There are ways around the system but i stand by my advice, if you want to share apps and music it’s much easier with a single account until such time as it’s stretched to far. I can’t see any advantage to using separate accounts for kids. Happy to be shown if I’m missing something as I have to deal with iTunes issues on a weekly basis at work…

Also. A CD is about 800Mb but in reality most albums are about 500Mb. So ripping with zero compression means about 2000 albums on a 1TB drive, probably more. That’s an awfully big library.

Always rip at highest possible format for home use. Storage gets cheaper all the time and you can always buy more but the process of ripping takes forever (especially if you have a big library), and you definitely only want to do it once…

Ideally you rip music to two formats, say FLAC and MP3 @ 256kbps. One for the home and one for mobile. You either do this manually or buy a system to do it for you. See here for an example